Ascorbic acid (C6H8O6) is the most common form of
vitamin C.
"It is an essential food for human beings.
People who receive no ascorbic acid become sick and die." -
Linus Pauling (Vitamin C and the Common Cold, 1970).

"Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is one of the important water soluble vitamins.
It is essential for collagen, carnitine and neurotransmitters biosynthesis.
Most plants and animals synthesize ascorbic acid for their own requirement.
However, apes and humans can not synthesize ascorbic acid due to lack
of an enzyme gulonolactone oxidase.
Hence, ascorbic acid has to be supplemented mainly through fruits,
vegetables and tablets."
Read the full article
"Vitamin C in Human Health and Disease is Still a Mystery?
An Overview"

Continuing Education for Every Medical Doctor and Registered Dietician

What is Vitamin C?

Most writers use "vitamin C" and "ascorbic acid"
interchangeably. However, ascorbic acid is but one form of vitamin C.

Technically vitamin C is the ascorbate ion (C6H7O6) so
every form of vitamin C has this anti-scurvy factor. Vitamin C comes in many forms because the vitamin C part (C6H7O6)
easily combines with other atoms and molecules.
For example, the ascorbate fraction rapidly attaches to hydrogen,
sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium atoms.

All forms of vitamin C can be called ascorbates.
Even the most common form of vitamin C, ascorbic acid,
is hydrogen ascorbate (the ascorbate ion attached
to a hydrogen atom).

Ascorbic acid is a weak acid; its acidity is about that of a cola soft
drink. Vitamin C does not have to be acidic. It is also found in various alkaline forms, such as the mineral ascorbates
sodium ascorbate, calcium ascorbate, magnesium ascorbate,
and potassium ascorbate, etc.

Chirality

Ascorbate has different shapes in three-dimensional space.
The different shapes of the ascorbate fraction have the same atoms,
but the atoms are arranged differently, much like the right hand is the
same but different from the left hand.

Chemists call the difference between the same molecules their chirality.
Linus Pauling explained that there are exactly four different shapes
(stereoisomers) the ascorbate ion can take: L-ascorbate,
D-ascorbate, LD-ascorbate and DL-ascorbate.

Linus Pauling the chemist also told us that only the L-ascorbate shape has vitamin C activity, i.e. only the L- shape can cure the vitamin C deficiency disease scurvy.

"While known to scientists like myself, the public and most doctors
are totally unaware that synthesizing vitamin C produces two very
different molecules. These are: D-ascorbate and L-ascorbate.
Almost all the vitamin C on the market is roughly a 50/50 mixture of
the two.
Only the L-ascorbate is biologically beneficial to the body.
D-ascorbate is an irritant to the body, and there are indications that
a lot of D-ascorbate could be detrimental to health.

Over the years that I have recommended vitamin C, many have complained
that vitamin C irritates their stomach. Yet, when they take
high-quality vitamin C, this doesn't happen.
It's the D-ascorbate contaminant that's the problem. Those who are
supplementing with regular commercial vitamin C need to know that half
of what they are paying for is biologically useless, a waste of money
and perhaps even detrimental. Another issue is that even vitamin C from
natural sources degrades. For example, a fresh orange is almost all
L-ascorbate. Once extracted to make orange juice, it will, in a matter
of days, degrade to become a 50/50 mixture of D- and
L-ascorbate"
- Raymond Francis
www.beyondhealthnews.com/wpnews/index.php/2013/09/vitamin-c-what-do-you-need

Is Vitamin C Really a Vitamin?

Scientists are now using the more technically correct term ascorbate,
instead of vitamin C, especially when referring to dosages higher than
the 10 to 60 milligrams daily that prevent death from acute scurvy.

Most vitamins are readily available in food and are only required
in minuscule amounts by the animals that eat the food.
It is true that tiny amounts of vitamin C (around 10 milligrams daily)
can keep human beings alive by preventing death from the vitamin C deficiency disease
scurvy.
Therefore, the RDA (60-90 mg) keeps most of us alive.

There is something different about vitamin C.

The intellectual argument whether vitamin C is more than just a vitamin
is based on the theory of evolution. Genetic deletions are common, yet
most plants and animals make their own vitamin C. Very few species
have survived to the present day after losing their innate ability to
make vitamin C.

According to British nutritionist Patrick Holford,

"Vitamin C, ascorbic acid C6H8O6, isn't a vitamin for most species.
It is not a necessary component of the diet,
at least for all mammals with the exception of guinea pigs,
fruit eating bats, the red vented bulbul bird and primates - which includes us.
All other species make their own."
- Read full article:
How Much Is Enough?

Another clue that we evolved to require more ascorbate than is in our
food is the amount of vitamin C animals make for themselves: thousands
of milligrams (not tens of milligrams), far more than nutritional
authorities recommend.
[ * ]

High dosages of ascorbate have been found to make many people feel better, making the case that
ascorbic acid (C6H8O6) is not just a vitamin in the commonly used sense
of the word.

Flashback: 86 Years Ago...

"Synthetic vitamin C, called ascorbic acid, in its first actual use on
medical patients is producing very striking and unexpected disease
conquests, the British Association for the Advancement of Science was
informed by Prof. A. Szent-Györgyi, the Hungarian chemist who played a
major role in the artificial manufacture of this important vitamin.

The mouth disorder known as pyorrhea, a certain kind of hemophilia,
which is a disease of bleeding, certain forms of hemorrhagic nephritis,
and several other diseases against which medicine was helpless are
seemingly being cured by ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is not a cure for
hereditary hemophilia.

'This is the more striking since these pathological conditions have not
been thought to be connected with lack of vitamin,' Prof.
Szent-Györgyi explained. 'These curative effects suggest that
humanity is suffering much more gravely from a lack of vitamin C than
has hitherto been supposed.'

Disfiguring colorations of the skin brought on by illness are also made
to disappear by ascorbic acid. Patients with Addison's disease, who
have a yellow color, can be bleached out again by the use of this substance."

Why Do We Need More Vitamin C than the RDA?

The government's current recommended daily allowance for vitamin C is
around 70 milligrams.
(See our RDA)

The intriguing question is whether larger-than-recommended amounts of
vitamin C improve the health of human beings?

Russell Jaffe Ascorbate Calibration/Cleanse:

"Based on ascorbate calibration, it is evident from Figure 3 that
80% of people require at least 10 g of ascorbate (vitamin C) daily
for optimum physiological function, and this amount can be as high
as 130g/day."- Russell Jaffe, MD, PhD
Figure 3:

Setup: Determine the largest single dosage that will not
cause diarrhea. (This step must be done ahead of time, i.e. right
now, if you are not a regular vitamin C "mega" doser.) The one-time
dosage is usually 1.5 gram (healthy people) or 3 grams (feeling poorly)
or 6 (up to 12 grams - chronically ill).

Cleanse: Take the one-time maximum dosage every 15 minutes until
the flush, i.e., watery discharge (loose stools don't count.) The
watery flush usually occurs before the two hour mark.

Note: When you are well, you can use Dr. Jaffe's Calibration
procedure to help you estimate how much vitamin C you should be taking
daily. The optimal daily amount is usually put at 75% of your two-hour
calibration.

The late Robert Cathcart, III, MD reported that in his clinical practice of over 13,000 patients, (and later over 20,000 patients), that he occasionally used more then 200,000 milligrams of vitamin C.
This report is detailed in his original 1986
"Vitamin C: Titrating to Bowel Tolerance" paper.
Cathcart reported that our need for vitamin C increases in response to illness or stress.

Nobelist and Chemist Linus Pauling became one of the world's foremost vitamin C experts.
Pauling explained that there is a wealth of scientific research
information that expands vitamin C's role past that of an ordinary vitamin.

There are now more than 100,000 studies, reports and peer-reviewed
papers about vitamin C that have been published over the past 80 years.
Linus Pauling alerted us in his book
[*]
that most medical students and orthodox dietitians are not aware of
this research because it wasn't presented during their medical educations.
- Owen Fonorow

Linus Pauling, after reviewing the research, himself supplemented
18,000 milligrams of ascorbic acid daily and he recommended that every
adult take at least 6000 milligrams (or 6 grams) to 18,000 milligrams
(18 grams) every day.
[*]

Steve Hickey and Hiliary Roberts explain in
Ridiculous Dietary Allowance why the current official
recommendations are unscientific and inappropriate.

According to Linus Pauling, vitamin C deficiency is more common in
human beings than generally believed.

The complete absence of
vitamin C in the diet will cause death from the vitamin C deficiency disease
scurvy.
Nobelist Pauling felt that we are all dying a slow death from a low-grade form of scurvy.

It is a fact that Linus Pauling and associates Unified Theory of Heart Disease
[*]
implicates a sub-clinical
vitamin C deficiency leading to a condition Pauling called chronic scurvy.

Cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and stroke
are the leading cause of death in the United States.

Don't Tissues Saturate at 200 mg of Vitamin C?

The erroneous idea that 200 mg of vitamin C is all our bodies can use
daily arose out of important research by the Mark Levine group at the
National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The NIH papers were analyzed by pharmacology professors Steve Hickey,
Ph.D. and Hilary Roberts, Ph.D., and the errors were communicated to
the NIH and other authorities. After normal scientific channels
failed, these UK scientists authored two important books detailing the
errors in the NIH research conclusions.

The basic flaw in the NIH research was not accounting for the short
half life of ascorbate in the blood plasma. Using the NIH's own
numbers, Hickey and Roberts developed their Dynamic Flow theory.

For those interested in the details of why our blood plasma and tissues do
not "saturate" at 200 mg daily, please refer to:

Apparently the Linus Pauling Institute is aware of the faulty NIH
research, but not of the Hickey/Roberts rebuttal arguments.

One major implication of the Hickey/Roberts' Dynamic Flow
theory is that taking 500 mg of vitamin C orally every 3 hours
maintains the highest steady-state blood plasma concentrations.

Natural Vitamin C-Complex - Fact or Fiction?

"The old name for scurvy was scorbutes; so vitamin C, once
identified, was quickly christened a-scorbutic acid; or ascorbic acid.
Ignore the deluded ninnies that think ascorbic acid is something
evil and not real vitamin C! It's as daft as saying
H2O isn't water!
And before you write to tell me: ascorbic acid is the name for both
natural and synthetic vitamin C and BOTH work just fine, because they
are identical. - Dr. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Vitamin That Conquered The World!

Is there really such a thing as natural vitamin C complex?

Such a complex can be defined, but it isn't vitamin C.

If such a complex really exists with vitamin C activity (minus ascorbic
acid), this fact escaped the attention of all world scientists,
including Linus Pauling. Such a complex is not reported in over
100,000 published studies, papers, reports and scientific articles
regarding ascorbic acid (C6H8O6).

Vitamin C is defined as the substance that cures the
deficiency disease scurvy. This separates the ascorbates (C6H7O6) from the ill-defined
natural vitamin C complex.
Note that any so-called natural complex, minus (C6H7O6) does
not and cannot cure scurvy and, therefore, cannot be Vitamin C.

The official Vitamin C Foundation response to the
Natural Vitamin C and C-complex arguments that are widely
distributed across the Internet:

Those who argue that a vitamin C complex exists, and is different
from ascorbic acid, usually claim (falsely) that the Nobel scientist
credited with isolating Vitamin C, Professor A. Szent-Györgyi, believed in
the so-called natural C-complex. This rumor is based on early
speculation and misquotes earlier writings by Dr. Szent-Györgyi.

More Vitamin C Information on the Web

Good overview. Excellent references. The authors make the common
mistakes (e.g. they cite tissue saturation without explaining why
animals produce so much more endogenous ascorbate than their own
tissue saturation levels, etc.).

The Last Interview:
Linus Pauling's final interview with the Journal of Optimum Nutrition
in 1994

Example Vitamin C Science Project

Foundation Does Not Sell Vitamin C

The Foundation approves, but does not sell vitamin C.

Consider making a contribution to the
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at the same time you place your order.
As the Foundation is a recognized 501(c)(3),
your donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.
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"Vitamin C is a normal constituent of the body, required for life.
It is involved in essentially all of the biochemical reactions that take
place in the body and in all of the body's protective mechanisms.
With the ordinary intake of vitamin C these reactions and mechanisms do
not operate efficiently." - Linus Pauling
(pg. 123 HOW TO LIVE LONGER AND FEEL BETTER, 1986, paperback)

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The world's best source of news and information about Vitamin C - ascorbic acid!